NEW DELHI: Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi, on Monday, said that Pakistani players will not be able to take part in IPL 3 as they
failed to get clearance from PCB and obtain visas to play in India in March-April next year.

“No Pak player will take part in IPL 3 as they failed to get clearance from PCB”, Lalit Modi said.

Earlier, Pakistan federal interior ministry gave security clearance to the national cricketers to participate in the third edition of the Indian Premier League.

“The foreign ministry had already given political clearance for the players to take part in the IPL and now the interior ministry has also given its security clearance,” a PCB official had said.

He said the government had told the PCB it could now issue relevant NOC’s to players wishing to take part in the IPL and who get valid contracts from the IPL teams.

The government had stopped Pakistani players from taking part in the second season of the IPL this year on security grounds and because of the tense political relations between Pakistan and India after the Mumbai terror attacks.
Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Mumbai Indians, the Indian Premier League team owned by Mukesh Ambani, has lost its largest sponsorship deal with Idea Cellular walking out of the $2-3 million per year contract two years before schedule.

“We were not very happy with the Mumbai Indians association; it did not give us the branding impact we had hoped for,” said an Idea Cellular official, defending its decision to terminate the Rs 10-15 crore/year deal signed just before the second edition of Indian Premier League earlier this year.

The spokesperson of the telecom operator, however, refused to confirm or comment on the termination of the deal. An email query sent to Mumbai Indians, led by Sachin Tendulkar, remained unanswered.

Cricket remains of prime import to Idea’s marketing plans though, particularly with India becoming the world’s top test team for the first time on Sunday.

It is now looking at a larger branding play with GMR-owned Delhi Daredevils, said the official talking on condition of anonymity. In October, Idea had picked up a one-year sponsorship of Delhi Daredevils for the Champions League Twenty20 tournament and IPL season three. The sponsorship involves Delhi Daredevils players displaying Idea logos on their jersey. Virender Sehwag, the talk of the town after his magnificent 293 in the third and final test against Sri Lanka that confirmed India’s rise to the top, captains the Delhi team.

Idea Cellular’s deal to become Mumbai Indians’ principal sponsor in the telecom services category was the biggest deal signed by any IPL franchisee for season two. Most of the other deals were in the Rs 2-5-crore-per-year bracket. At the time of the signing of the deal just before the second season of IPL earlier this year, both sides had agreed on a three-year association.

Soon after IPL was forced to relocate to South Africa, Idea and Mumbai Indians had drummed up an elaborate four-phase campaign, which aimed to connect the team’s players Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan with cricket fans. The campaign involved fans getting to call or SMS the cricketers, give them playing suggestions and wishing them good luck. Each player’s Idea number was flashed across mass media platforms. While Tendulkar, Harbhajan and Zaheer Khan had led the communication, similar 10 digit numbers were assigned to others in the Mumbai Indians team like Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya and West Indian Dwayne Bravo.

Other activation by Idea involved providing cricket updates, gaming, match videos and photographs. The campaign activity was not restricted to Idea subscribers and all operators, including landlines, had the option of ‘calling’ Mumbai Indians players. Idea’s tagline had been ‘duniya hila denge Indians’. Mumbai Indians’ other sponsors for IPL season two included chewing company Wrigley, beverage and snacks maker PepsiCo, MasterCard, Adidas and Pernod Richard.

With India sitting pretty on top of the cricketing world and the IPL joining the list of most popular sporting brands in the world, most marketers are looking at leveraging the Twenty20 league as a significant activation opportunity next year when it returns to the country after a year’s gap.

source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to allow Pakistan players to play in the third edition of the prestigious Indian Premier League. Due to increased tension between two neighbors after the Mumbai attack, none of the Pakistan players were allowed to play in IPL-2. During a meeting with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, PCB chairman Ejaz Butt said that PCB will not object if players wish to take part in this million dollar baby of BCCI

“I spoke to him about our players taking part in the next IPL season and have requested him to ensure that Pakistani players are allowed to play in the league next year,” he said.

Indian premier league season 3 is scheduled to be held in March-April 2010.

Stuart Binny, the son of former India allrounder Roger Binny, has become the second player to sign up with the Mumbai Indians in a week. Days after Mumbai gave Punjab’s Chandan Madan a contract, they took on board Binny, a Karnataka allrounder who made his first-class debut in 2003-04.

Binny, 25, has plenty of Twenty20 experience after two seasons with the unofficial ICL. His accurate medium-pacers and big-hitting were pivotal to the Hyderabad Heroes’ campaigns, establishing Binny as one of the leading allrounders in the league.

Binny accepted the Indian board’s amnesty offer earlier this year and quit the ICL. The reputation he built in the unofficial league made him one of the most sought-after players in the Karnataka Premier League, where he was the second-most expensive buy.
Source:cricinfo.com

The Indian Premier League  is facing a rough pitch. With a little over six months to go for the third leg of the most successful cricket properties of recent times, with a brand value of $2 billion, IPL is facing hostile bouncers — four to be precise — that it is finding hard to negotiate.

First, IPL-III now has no central events management firm. Second, the international company handling its online business has terminated its contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), leaving the status of the portal IPLt20.com unclear. Third, a clutch of international cricketers from Australia, England and South Africa , including Ricky Ponting, have announced their decision to focus on the longer version of the game (test matches and one-day cricket), as opposed to playing Twenty20  format cricket. Players like Sri Lanka’s  Muralitharan are batting for test match cricket, even though he is crucial to the fortunes of Chennai Super Kings , the IPL team from Chennai. Fourth, a section of advertisers are sceptical on the popularity of IPL-III as a television property next year, going by the lower ratings of IPL-II that was played between April and May this year. The biggest problem, of course, is the termination of the 10-year contract with IMG International, a leading international sports and events management firm that conceived and managed the first two IPL tournaments held in India and South Africa. This is because the BCCI terminated the 10-year contract it had with IMG International over differences in the financial terms put forward by IMG, sources say. This means IPL has no central events management body that will co-ordinate between players, state cricket boards, hotels and airlines for the third edition of the tournament scheduled to begin in March 2010. The matter is likely to be discussed on September 24 in an internal meeting of the IPL working committee after BCCI came under pressure from the former BCCI president Sharad Pawar.

The IPL teams are also concerned. Says a top executive of one of the IPL teams: “We are extremely concerned by the sudden exit of a professional events management body from IPL. Whosoever in BCCI thinks what IMG was doing can be replicated by any local body or by the BCCI does not understand the logistics of handling a 59-day cricket tournament.” To make matters worse, the Canadian media firm?Live Current Media?managing the websites of both BCCI and IPL has terminated its 10-year contract with BCCI that it won last year for $50 million. The Canadian company owns portals like IPLt20.com, Cricket.com, T20.com among several other cricket-related online portals. Industry observers say Live Current Media was finding its deal with the BCCI an extremely high cost venture with limited opportunity to recover its investments. “Live Current Media has exited from the cricket business altogether. This is a sign that IPL brand as an online property may have been overvalued by its promoters,” says a media consultant who does not wish to be identified. IPL insiders say the revenue from the online business of IPL is considered critical by the Indian cricket board. These include incomes from live streaming of IPL videos, T20 cricket highlights available in downloadable clips for a charge, online sale of tickets for IPL and other memorabilia and several other online revenue earning possibilities. “When the contract was signed with Live Current Media, it was estimated that IPL will earn upwards of $3 million from the websites alone in the first-four IPL tournaments,” says a source connected with IPL management. IPL as a hot television property in 2008 generated around Rs 500 crore in ad revenue for SET Max, sources say. But this year, its second-leg saw a 10 to 15 per cent dip in match ratings though the net reach of the show was higher than IPL-I. “The novelty factor of IPL is not there now. Also, the Indian team was the World T20 champions before IPL-I, so there was an overall excitement about the event. In subsequent years, IPL will settle down as a serious television event but the potential of generating advertising revenue has to be more realistic,” says the head of a leading media agency. For BCCI, the top priority is now to find an event management firm that is acceptable to all the eight teams. “The rest will fall in place much before the IPL-III kicks off once the matter of the management firm is settled,” says a source in IPL.

Source:business-standard.com

Bollywood star Salman Khan wants to own a cricket team. The actor has met IPL chairman Lalit Modi in Mumbai to understand the bidding process.

According to reports Bollywood star Ajay Devgun also wants to buy new IPL team.

Two new IPL teams are to be introduced in 2011. Early reports say Khan is interested in bidding for the Nagpur or Kochi team.

“He was interested to know what it takes to own a team, what’s the process, when it will be initiated and what’s the timeline for it. I think he is a serious buyer,” Modi said.

Last year, the average bid was 150 million dollars per team, so Salman will need a serious amount of cash.
Source: cricket.ndtv.com

Kolkata Knight Riders’ hunt for a new coach is still on, and the latest to join in the speculation is former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram.

But latest reports say that Akram, one of the most gifted bowlers of all time, is not in line for the coach’s job. Instead, he is likely to be roped in as a consultant. Akram’s media commitments are said to be the reason for him not joining the team full-time.

According to media reports, Akram and John Wright, who has captained New Zealand and coached India, are the only top candidates left to be interviewed by the team’s owner Shah Rukh Khan. The process, which includes a presentation by the hopefuls, may be completed by the end of this week. Akram will be meeting the KKR management to finalise his contract on August 30.

Earlier reports said that Wright (55) was the frontrunner to succeed Buchanan, who had been the franchise’s head of cricket operations until his removal two months ago. However, two more names – Richard Pybus and Dermot Reeve – have cropped up.

Pybus and Reeve, the former English cricketers, were interviewed by Khan at his Bandra residence on Sunday and are tipped to secure the high-profile coaching assignment.

Pybus is said to have emerged as the favourite. The management was impressed with his presentation. He has been asked to stay on for a second round of meeting on August 30.

Wright too will present his case on the 30th of this month. But KKR is having second thoughts about him because he does not have any T20 coaching experience.

Meanwhile, Akram has confirmed that he was approached by the KKR management for coach’s job. He said that he was called by Sourav Ganguly to help him in managing/coaching the Knight Riders.

Ganguly, however, said nothing had been finalised yet.

“Akram is part of the final few coaches who have been called on August 30. He along with (John) Wright and (Pravin) Amre have been called. I would also go to Mumbai that time,” Ganguly said.

Former Indian batsman, Amre, incidentally was assistant coach of the Mumbai Indians for the second season of the IPL.
Source: cricket.ndtv.com/

Kolkata: The selection of the coach for Kolkata Knight Riders seems to be hotting up with more and more candidates entering the fray, Pakistan cricket legend Wasim Akram being the latest addition.

Just a day after his name was thrown in for the post of KKR coach, Wasim Akram has said that he is keen to give it a shot.

The former Pakistan captain said he was scheduled to meet Shah Rukh Khan on Sunday to discuss the assignment.

“It requires a lot of patience and that is something I have acquired over a period of time. I have played alongside Sourav Ganguly and Chris Gayle. I will be able to pass on some skills and techniques with the on-field experience I have,” Akram told ESPN.

The man in the centre of it all, Sourav Ganguly spoke of his rapport with some of the men shortlisted for the job and his other roles on the sidelines.

Sourav Ganguly: “The KKR people have taken interview of lot of coaches. We have got some more to go on the next Sunday after which Shah Rukh and Joy will decide who the new coach is. There are definitely some big names and hopefully, we will get the right person.”

CNN-IBN: Wasim Akram has also joined the race apart from John Wright and Pravin Amre. Are you looking for a blend of foreign and Indian coaches?

Sourav Ganguly: “I am not too worried about the coaches. I am really worried about the team, what team we put on the park. I am spending a lot of time trying to get that right.”

CNN-IBN: John Wright and you had a very good time when he was the coach and you were the captain of the Indian team. So now, how are you looking forward to it?

Sourav Ganguly: “Well, let him get first selected. Let us not jump the gun. Obviously, I had a great relationship with John. He is a great man. He’s worked superbly with me as India’s coach.”

CNN-IBN: Did you suggest Wasim Akram’s name?

Sourav Ganguly: “I have a good relationship with Wasim and, with other people as well. Shah Rukh and Wasim had a chat. Wasim is a great bowler. I know him very well. So, he will be fine.”

CNN-IBN: You have been selected as the chairman of the Cricket Development Committee of the CAB. What sort of developments are you looking forward to?

Sourav Ganguly: “I have made a plan and hopefully, I will get them implemented. Implementation is more important. You can develop a whole lot of things but as long as you don’t implement them, it gets nothing. So once I get the official confirmation, I will try and implement them.”

CNN-IBN: How are you looking forward to IPL-III?

Sourav Ganguly: “We will just go and play. Past has got nothing to do.”
Source: cricketnext.in.com